surf – Michael Witten

A Two Hour Smile.

8/11 Waves.

It was a good dream. Vague and mostly forgotten, not at all unsettling, a slight smile in my sleep. I seemed very young, maybe seven, still free with innocence, unencumbered by later life. It was a hot day, summertime, and we were, or had been, at the beach, where I had spent the entire day engulfed in waves. Diving under, jumping up, turning so that the back of your head had the wave break over it while you looked through to shore, maneuvering for the next one, on and on. Bodysurfing. Giggling underwater all the way to the sand when you got caught.

Then came the post stoke relaxation and good sleep. Warm breezes, full moon, abundance of life and living. The August cicadas were singing away, celebrating the season. Something then turned, the timing too early. Soundwaves getting louder and louder, threatening my sleep and dream state. The dream faded, like youth, or a good summer on the first day of school. My alarm was blaring, no longer a cicada’s song. I hit snooze. Ahhh, crickets….

This new silence was not feeling like more real sleep, so I grabbed my camera bag and water housing and headed down to the beach. There was a slight North wind, which is always good, but heavy stratus cloud cover prevented any sunrise light. Scanning the ocean for whales and dolphin, I waited, enjoying my 7-11 large, dark coffee. Didn’t see any, but noticed the waves were actually curling a bit, first time in a while.

When I opened my bag to grab my 16-35mm, the lens was missing. In its place was my 24-120mm. Wasn’t sure if it would fit in the housing and with no collar on the lens there would be no zoom, but I gave it a shot and got lucky. 24mm, not bad for leaving the house half asleep. (EDIT: looking at exif data, the zoom slowly shifted towards the longer end.)

Patches of blue started peaking through the grey. I headed down toward the Fire Island Lighthouse. Bare feet in sand, coffee in hand. The next two hours brought changing light, one long smile, a few giggles, and the focused, alert, wake-full-ness of salt therapy. Living in a dream. It comes in waves.

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Ripples…

You rise like a wave in the Ocean, only to settle back into the Sea.

Ripples, Fountains, other things perhaps best left unsaid. Take me home.

Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.

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Happy 75th Birthday, Jerry Garcia…

Spitting into the Weather.

I was overheated, lethargic. The world looked gray and dull for photography. Yet there was that something in the air – subtle signs of weather change. I figured I’d try to cool off swimming in a local cove for relief. The high temps and humidity had me feeling pretty lazy, so I figured I’d leave the camera home. Realizing this was dumb, and anticipating rain, I left the heavy lenses home, but put my camera into a surf housing.

Hemlock Cove was refreshing. The god awful record-breaking brown tide was all but gone. All was calm, but storm clouds were moving in, looking good. Had a swim, took a few shots and the wind shifted North. White caps within three minutes inside the cove!

A North wind smooths the surface of the ocean, countering the usual onshore breeze here on the south shore of Long Island. I ran across the parkway, and jumped in. A nice storm, and being in the ocean are two things that re-energize me. Can ya relate? Yep.

Photo tips: I use a Nikon 16-35mm lens with an Aquatech base model housing. The base model has no real controls, so I set the F-stop to where I want it, and shoot in Aperture priority. I then set the ISO to auto. This way the camera has a chance to give me a good exposure. In the menu, you can set the lowest shutter speed and the highest ISO that you are comfortable with. (If the amount of available light means your shutter would get too slow at your chosen F-stop, the ISO will automatically increase, allowing the camera to keep your shutter speed fast.)

The wide angle requires a dome port. To prevent water droplets from blurring a pic, they need to go. First, make sure you have no oily greasy fingerprints on the port. (dish soap, but rinse well.) Then, spit. And spit. And lick. The dome port actually has a lot of surface area. Spit a lot. Lick a lot. You may get funny looks. Keep the housing under water until right before you shoot. The water will fall off, leaving a thin film of water with no drops. Keep spitting, keep licking, keep shooting.

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